Tempo:
^
'
MODERN REFORMS
CHAP, n
33
prolific of deceit and illusion, and thus denounced used as an man's weakness or his proneness to evil. Practically instrument. Kabir admitted outward conformity, and leant towards ^"j^j^^g^m Rama or Vishnu as the most perfect type of God. Like Jph^^^ his predecessors, he erringly gave shape and attributes to the divinity, and he further limited the application of his doctrines of reform, by 'declaring retirement from the world to be desirable, and the 'Sadh', or pure or perfect -man, the passive or inoffensive votary, to be the living resemblance of the Almighty. The views, however, of Kabir are not very distinctly laid down or clearly understood; but the latitude of usage which he sanctioned, and his employment of a spoken dialect, have rendered his writings extensively popular among the lower orders of India.
In the beginning of the sixteenth century the chaitan reforms of Ramanand were introduced into Bengal by preaches Chaitan, a Brahman of Nadia. He converted some ^^''s^°"^ Muhammadans, and admitted all classes as members of Beng^ his sect.
He insisted upon 'Bhakti', or faith, as chast- a.d. isoo.
ening the most
impure;
he
allowed
marriage
and insists
secular occupations; but his followers abused the usual "po" t^e injunction of reverence for the teacher, and some ot e^'^^'^y °^ them held that the Guru was to be invoked before admi'ts^of God.- About the same period Vallabh Swami, a Brah- secular ocman of Telingana, gave a further impulse to the cupations. Cf. the Dabistan, ii. 184, &c., Wilson, As. Res., xvi. 53, and Ward's Hindoos, iii. 406. Kabir is an Arabic word, meaning the greatest, and Professor Wilson doubts whether any such person ever existed and considers the Kabir of Muhsin Fani to be the personification of an idea, or that the title was assumed by a Hindu free-thinker as a disguise. The name, however, although significant, is now at least not uncommon, and perhaps the ordinary story that Kabir was a fondling, reared by a weaver, and subsequently admitted as a disciple by Ramanand, is sufficiently probable to justify his identity. His body is stated to have been claimed both by the Hindus and Muhammadans, and Muhsin Fani observes that many Muhammadans became Bairagis, i.e. ascetics of the modern yaishnava sect, of which the followers of Ramanand and Kabir form the principal subdivisions. (Dabi'
stan, ii. 193.) As a further instance of the fission of feeling then, and now, going forward, the reply of the Hindu deist, Akamnath, to the keepers of the Kaba at Mecca may be quoted. He first scandalized them by asking where was the master of the house; and he then inquired why the idols had been thrown out. He was told that the works of men wei-e not to be worshipped; whereupon he inquired whether the temple itself was not reared with hands, and therefore undeserving of respect (Dabistan, ii.
117)
- For an account of Chaitan and his followers, cf. Wilson, Asiatic Researches, xvi. 109, &c., and Ward, on The Hindoos, iii.
'
MODERN REFORMS
CHAP, n
33
prolific of deceit and illusion, and thus denounced used as an man's weakness or his proneness to evil. Practically instrument. Kabir admitted outward conformity, and leant towards ^"j^j^^g^m Rama or Vishnu as the most perfect type of God. Like Jph^^^ his predecessors, he erringly gave shape and attributes to the divinity, and he further limited the application of his doctrines of reform, by 'declaring retirement from the world to be desirable, and the 'Sadh', or pure or perfect -man, the passive or inoffensive votary, to be the living resemblance of the Almighty. The views, however, of Kabir are not very distinctly laid down or clearly understood; but the latitude of usage which he sanctioned, and his employment of a spoken dialect, have rendered his writings extensively popular among the lower orders of India.
In the beginning of the sixteenth century the chaitan reforms of Ramanand were introduced into Bengal by preaches Chaitan, a Brahman of Nadia. He converted some ^^''s^°"^ Muhammadans, and admitted all classes as members of Beng^ his sect.
He insisted upon 'Bhakti', or faith, as chast- a.d. isoo.
ening the most
impure;
he
allowed
marriage
and insists
secular occupations; but his followers abused the usual "po" t^e injunction of reverence for the teacher, and some ot e^'^^'^y °^ them held that the Guru was to be invoked before admi'ts^of God.- About the same period Vallabh Swami, a Brah- secular ocman of Telingana, gave a further impulse to the cupations. Cf. the Dabistan, ii. 184, &c., Wilson, As. Res., xvi. 53, and Ward's Hindoos, iii. 406. Kabir is an Arabic word, meaning the greatest, and Professor Wilson doubts whether any such person ever existed and considers the Kabir of Muhsin Fani to be the personification of an idea, or that the title was assumed by a Hindu free-thinker as a disguise. The name, however, although significant, is now at least not uncommon, and perhaps the ordinary story that Kabir was a fondling, reared by a weaver, and subsequently admitted as a disciple by Ramanand, is sufficiently probable to justify his identity. His body is stated to have been claimed both by the Hindus and Muhammadans, and Muhsin Fani observes that many Muhammadans became Bairagis, i.e. ascetics of the modern yaishnava sect, of which the followers of Ramanand and Kabir form the principal subdivisions. (Dabi'
stan, ii. 193.) As a further instance of the fission of feeling then, and now, going forward, the reply of the Hindu deist, Akamnath, to the keepers of the Kaba at Mecca may be quoted. He first scandalized them by asking where was the master of the house; and he then inquired why the idols had been thrown out. He was told that the works of men wei-e not to be worshipped; whereupon he inquired whether the temple itself was not reared with hands, and therefore undeserving of respect (Dabistan, ii.
117)
- For an account of Chaitan and his followers, cf. Wilson, Asiatic Researches, xvi. 109, &c., and Ward, on The Hindoos, iii.
©
2026
Lehal.net